Dawn Walker

---

Auri smiled at Bat Bat.

Mira looked down at herself, then back at Sekhmet.

"And can I return to the other form at will?"

"Yes."

That answer pleased her.

He saw it in the smallest shift at the corner of her mouth.

It was not joy. But something sharper.

It was a possibility. Possibility of taking revenge on the Gorgon race.

Then voices came from farther inside the Void Land.

It was Sofia and Natasha.

The sealed half-god women were not close enough to interfere, but they were close enough to feel everything. The summoned bats assigned to watch them hung from the surrounding dark shapes rocks branches like dozens of tiny red-eyed judges. They were silent and obedient.

Sofia’s voice came first, it was lowered but very clear in the stillness.

"Did you feel that?"

Natasha answered at once. "All of it... I felt all of it."

Bat Bat looked over in startled curiosity. Mira’s eyes shifted too, but Sekhmet did not move toward them yet. They could hear everything.

Sofia continued, more slowly this time. "When he transformed the girl Lily, we said it might have been luck. A strange twist. A special bloodline accident."

Natasha’s gaze remained fixed on Mira. "And now he has done it again."

Sofia replied, "Yes."

There was a pause.

The bats above them did not move.

Natasha’s voice dropped further. "Then now... is it not a coincidence?"

Sofia’s expression tightened. "No."

Natasha looked toward Sekhmet now, not Mira.

"He might be the one from the legend."

Sofia let one careful breath out. "Or the beginning of it."

Natasha’s lips moved with the shape of words she clearly did not want to speak too loudly.

"True divine blood."

The phrase settled into the dark between them.

Even Bat Bat went still.

Sofia’s eyes remained on Sekhmet. "If he can do this twice, with two different bloodlines, then what we heard was real. Or close enough to real that it does not matter anymore."

Natasha nodded once. "The next time he comes to feed on us, we tell him."

"Yes," Sofia said. "Then we tell him."

Sekhmet said nothing. Not yet. He didn’t know what they were talking about. He didn’t have time for that. The game starts in the morning.

Bat Bat was still trying to decide whether ’true divine blood’ sounded more like a title, or a prophecy, or a really dramatic problem.

Auri watched everything with her usual dark calm, one wing shifting lazily behind her.

Mira stood newly reborn between shell fragments. She looked beautiful and dangerous in both forms, while the first whispers of old blood legend moved through his hidden world like the beginning of another kind of war.

Sekhmet’s eyes were seeing something else. A system notification came to him.

[SYSTEM Notification: Chaos Rank increased of Mira: Rank 0 → Rank 3.

Overall Battle Power updated: 31000.]

[Status Window

Name: Mira

Race: Crimson Gorgon

Status: Newly awakened bloodline subordinate

Chaos Rank: Three

Overall Battle Power: 31000

Chaos Energy: 15500

Chaos Body: 15500

Bloodline Type: Special mutation under host blood line.

Form Shift: Available

Primary Form: Bipedal Crimson Gorgon

Secondary Form: Human appearance concealment

Combat Traits: Predatory blood manipulation, venom-linked control, regenerative serpent hair, amphibious raptor mobility, feathered blood-display instinct

Loyalty Alignment: Bound to host bloodline

Threat Assessment: Rising

SYSTEM Note: Target possesses special race potential.

Crimson Gorgon bloodline differs from standard true vampire evolution.

User intent may allow future growth through blood feeding, battle adaptation, and bloodline refinement.]

Sekhmet looked at Mira for a moment after the system window faded from his sight.

"Good. Very good."

She had not only survived the change. She had risen high in one leap.

Chaos Rank Three. Overall Battle Power thirty-one thousand. That was no small gift.

Mira was still adjusting to the strange new balance of her body. But when her eyes met his, intelligence was already there. Control too.

Sekhmet said, "As promised, I gave you power."

Mira held his gaze.

Then she bowed her head once, not as a servant forced into gratitude, but as a woman who understood the weight of what she had been given.

"Yes," she said quietly. "You did, master."

When she lifted her face again, there was no hesitation in her expression now.

Only certainty.

"I was weak before," she said. "Useful, yes. Careful, yes. But I was weak." Her hand rose briefly, touching her own throat as if feeling the bloodline from the outside. "Now I can feel it. The difference in power."

Sekhmet said nothing. He did not need to fill her moment with noise.

Mira stepped closer.

Bat Bat’s eyes widened at once.

Auri’s brows lifted just slightly.

Mira stopped in front of Sekhmet’s face, looked at him for one last second as if asking for permission without lowering herself enough to make it a plea, then leaned forward and pressed a kiss to his lips.

It was not long. It was not hungry. Not like Lily. Not like a lover trying to ignite a room. It was gratitude made intimate. A seal placed on a vow.

When she drew back her lips, her expression remained steady, but the warmth in her eyes had changed. It had deepened.

She said, "Thank you, Master."

Then, because Mira had always preferred clean truths once she accepted them, she added, "I am your third concubine. After the twins."

Bat Bat made a tiny strangled sound that might have been surprise, delight, or the beginning of gossip trying to hatch inside her chest.

Mira ignored her completely.

Her gaze stayed on Sekhmet.

"I will give you my all in Mihos’s game," she said. "And after that, when the time comes, I will ask for my revenge."

Sekhmet’s mouth moved faintly. No wasted softness. No trembling promises. Just loyalty, ambition, and blood made clear.

He gained one more concubine. His harem is increasing very fast. There are many who haven’t officially joined yet. But they are part of it anyway.

He answered her in the same plain way.

"Then stand properly."

Mira straightened fully.

The snakes hidden in her hair, though concealed in human form, seemed to stir for the briefest instant beneath the bloodline veil.

She understood it properly. From now on she only belonged to him.

(Author Note: Dear readers, if you are loving the story. Then please send your Golden Tickets. I really need them for the Double Golden Ticket competition (only three days left), and your support will help this book a lot. Every Golden Ticket pushes the story higher, gives it more visibility, and helps Sekhmet’s journey grow stronger. If you want to support the book, now is the best time. Thank you so much for all your love and support.